Third-party Lightning accessories are unlikely to be ready for the holidays.

Manufacturers feared that Apple would use licensing rules to restrain the availability of non-Apple Lightning accessories. Now, those fears appear to have been valid. Sources for iLounge have confirmed that Apple has significantly altered its MFi Program rules, limiting the manufacture of Lightning connector accessories to Apple-approved factories. Since no such factories have been approved thus far, accessory makers don't expect to have any accessories available before the busy holiday shopping season.

According to one source for iLounge, Apple will hold an MFi program seminar in China in November, spelling out all the changes. However, that will be "after the point at which third-party Lightning accessories could be manufactured in time for holiday sale," iLounge reported. Notably, one manufacturer had promised a Lightning-to-30-pin adapter in September and already cancelled planned sales via Amazon.

Manufacturing sources also said the Lightning connector and its authentication chip have "proved difficult to copy," suggesting that "unauthorized" Lightning cables and adapters won't be appearing anytime soon. Those hoping for a $4 Lightning cable from the likes of Monoprice.com will likely be sorely disappointed, as Apple's $19 cable and pricier adaptors will be the only options until early 2013.

176 Reader Comments

This is the end... or at least the beginning thereof... Do apple not get that one major reason for iPhone luv are the aftermarket accessories. Trying to OWN that market ouright will be a great way to ensure its demise... Proprietary over priced and limited all spell doom... OK Samsung et-al, your move...

I wonder if the various people criticizing my dissatisfaction with the change in previousthreads on this topic will step in here to re-defend the new connector.

The connector itself is excellent. The way Apple is handling this...not so much. Really disappointing.

Fair point - but my complaints about the change don't (and haven't) had anything to do with the technical merits of the connector*, and everything to do with breaking compatibility and increasing the effective cost of owning an iDevice. Moreover, increasing the effective cost in a relatively subtle way likely to be overlooked by many people until they start trying to use the ecosystem of accessories and compatibility iDevices have so far enjoyed.

* Except insofar as I am unaware of any real benefits to me as a consumer the connector brings. This is not the same as saying there aren't any, but if I don't know what they are, they might as well not exist from a purchasing decision standpoint.

To play devil's advocate, I *have* purchased $1-5 cheap iPhone cables in the past which were clearly third party mimicks, not Apple designed connectors. Those cables ended up damaging the sides of the connector port on the iPhone and made it difficult to plug any cables into it. I've had similar experiences with cheap micro-usb cables as well on other devices. I've never use cheap cables like that again.

This may or may not end up harming smaller accessory makers in the future. We'll see. As a consumer, however, I like knowing my accessories have been certified to work with my device before I buy it, with no risk of harm or damage coming to my devices.

To play devil's advocate, I *have* purchased $1-5 cheap iPhone cables in the past which were clearly third party mimicks, not Apple designed connectors. Those cables ended up damaging the sides of the connector port on the iPhone and made it difficult to plug any cables into it. I've had similar experiences with cheap micro-usb cables as well on other devices. I've never use cheap cables like that again.

This may or may not end up harming smaller accessory makers in the future. We'll see. As a consumer, however, I like knowing my accessories have been certified to work with my device before I buy it, with no risk of harm or damage coming to my devices.

And you are welcome to only buy OEM products to meet that need.

Your desire to only buy OEM, however, is an uncompelling argument in support of why only OEM parts should even exist.

Thanks a lot you fucksticks. I've bought an ipad, iphone and MBA this year and I'm pissed. This move smacks of greed and I hate being nickel and dimed.When I ran the numbers earlier, it came out that Apple makes several billion a year revenue in iOS device cable and accessories alone. I can see why they're nickel and diming us but still... Does anyone se a reason they couldn't have shared this info with the suppliers earlier and gotten them on board.

this is a big screw job on apple's part. while wireless connectivity to iOS accessories is nice to have, sometimes i just want to plug my damn phone into the speaker dock. not including that wireless connectivity I'm sure is also a nice way to knock off a few bucks to the accessory's retail price, but wait we're gonna make up for it now and miss the holiday season! screw job.

Fair point - but my complaints about the change don't (and haven't) had anything to do with the technical merits of the connector*, and everything to do with breaking compatibility and increasing the effective cost of owning an iDevice.

They have to break backwards compatibility to improve. I don't give a shit about compatibility, just don't gyp (sorry gypsies!) me on the connectors.

Your desire to only buy OEM, however, is an uncompelling argument in support of why only OEM parts should even exist.

I'm not saying this is good or bad. We really don't have enough information to draw any conclusions from this other than Apple wants to have a say in who manufactures accessories for its devices. It probably also has something to do with protecting the design of the Lightning connector so that other manufactures can't copy or otherwise make compatible connections for their own devices.

Is there an upside to all this? Many accessory makers are switching to less proprietary connectors, instead favoring wireless solutions like Bluetooth, which is a universal standard for almost all devices out there. If you prefer, AirPlay continues to support wireless connectivity from Apple devices regardless of what port the device uses. Maybe there will be less of a need for that connector for a lot of our accessories in the future.

Seriously, will you microUSB people stop? The connector is absolute garbage especially in the USB 3.0 version. The shittiness of that connector has nothing to do with the shittiness of not being able to get cheap lightning connectors & cables.

Seriously, will you microUSB people stop? The connector is absolute garbage especially in the USB 3.0 version. The shittiness of that connector has nothing to do with the shittiness of not being able to get cheap lightning connectors & cables.

I'm sorry, I didn't realize being able to plug in a cable upside down was worth an extra $16 per cable or even a reason to complain at all.

Thanks a lot you fucksticks. I've bought an ipad, iphone and MBA this year and I'm pissed. This move smacks of greed and I hate being nickel and dimed.When I ran the numbers earlier, it came out that Apple makes several billion a year revenue in iOS device cable and accessories alone. I can see why they're nickel and diming us but still... Does anyone se a reason they couldn't have shared this info with the suppliers earlier and gotten them on board.

Show me where you got those numbers from, please.

Also, Apple announced at the iPhone 5 event that they already have several partners (Bose, BLW and B&O) who are already on board to make Lightning-compatible accessories. Besides, Apple is under no obligation to tell the world what their future plans will be. They don't tell case makers what dimensions the new iPhone or iPad will be before it's shipped. They didn't tell those watch-accessory makers they were changing the design of the Nano yet again, effectively killing that market.

Accessory makers have an opportunity to make lots of money off Apple's devices, but they are not entitled to that industry either. I'm getting a little off topic, but that's the same story with iOS developers as well. Apple will change the rules at any time with no input or consideration from its developers. You have two choices at that point - either adapt to the new rules, or leave the App Store. You, the consumer, are also free not to continue buying Apple products or accessories if you feel you're being "nickeled and dimed" to death. There are plenty of alternatives out there for you to explore.

My guess is this is a short term problem that will upset a minority of users, and in six months very few will still care about this.

Seriously, will you microUSB people stop? The connector is absolute garbage especially in the USB 3.0 version. The shittiness of that connector has nothing to do with the shittiness of not being able to get cheap lightning connectors & cables.

I think people are making a huge fuss over the pricing of these cables. Yes, it will be painful for a few months. It always is for any new connector. Do people forget that when HDMI came out, cables were like $100? I didn't hear people complaining about HDMI cables' pricing back then, so why is this being blown out of proportion? Then there's Firewire 800 cables, which never caught on much and still cost like $8 even on Monoprice, not substantially cheaper (though the quality is pretty good) than any other Firewire cable. And this is nothing compared to the $50 cost of a Thunderbolt cable. But then again, there's very few peripherals to plug that Thunderbolt cable into anyway. In the end, after this painful transition of 3 months is done, we'll all be better for it in the next decade. Because during those next 10 years, people will have switched cables from USB 3 to USB 4 to USB 5. And who knows what after HDMI.

Seriously, will you microUSB people stop? The connector is absolute garbage especially in the USB 3.0 version. The shittiness of that connector has nothing to do with the shittiness of not being able to get cheap lightning connectors & cables.

So... um... why is it "absolute garbage"?

My Galaxy S3 seems to work fantastic with it.

Micro-USB 3.0 scares me every-time i plug it in. Not only is it only one way, but fragile and I have had one fail after light use. Lightning will support usb 3 when the need is there and one cable can last the device lifetime. (micro usb 2 and 3 are designed to destroy the cable end before the device end which makes a ton of sense. Until you use lightning. Then you realize that this will be the most robust and small way to use usb 3 and maybe even thunderbolt. in fact given the chip in the connector, it may even go optical in the future. The old connector was good and strong, but I hated having to orient it. (although I never felt like it was going to be damaged if I guessed poorly. I preferred mini usb 2 to micro for robustness but micro usb3 trades too much robustness for backward compatibility. For Apples target audience, and those that spend on extra cables. 20 bucks is a fair price for a great cable. Apple customers don't want cheap, they would choose a free Android. (and get micro-usb) .

Everybody hated the original iPod cable when it came out too, and rightfully so since it was a proprietary annoyance. After much grumbling they bought all of the cables they needed and third parties started embracing the cable and made a treasure trove of accessories. Now with this cable we're back to square 1 and Apple seems to be going out of their way to make sure the treasure trove of accessories don't materialize for as long as possible. It's infuriating.

Seriously, what does that lockout chip do except let Apple be a dick with their cables?

Seriously, will you microUSB people stop? The connector is absolute garbage especially in the USB 3.0 version. The shittiness of that connector has nothing to do with the shittiness of not being able to get cheap lightning connectors & cables.

I believe he means the security guards they will have to hire to guard the fantastic amount of money they will make with this scam.I thought the idea of "active" cables seemed a bit fishy - if you need circuitry in the cable, surely you can put it in the socket? Turns out it was all part of the evil plan. Boo.

Wow...just, wow. Everyday it's something new and exciting from Apple, as of late. I hate to be the one to say it, but it all seems to be going downhill since Jobs died. I didn't expect to see an impact from his death for at least a year.

We need a standard, and NOT micro USB (the connector flat out sucks). Apple's at least looks easy to plug in without requiring precision alignment on entry, however, there's no way they'll bother allowing everyone else to use it.

I believe he means the security guards they will have to hire to guard the fantastic amount of money they will make with this scam.I thought the idea of "active" cables seemed a bit fishy - if you need circuitry in the cable, surely you can put it in the socket? Turns out it was all part of the evil plan. Boo.

* Except insofar as I am unaware of any real benefits to me as a consumer the connector brings. This is not the same as saying there aren't any, but if I don't know what they are, they might as well not exist from a purchasing decision standpoint.

You can plug it either way, EITHER WAY!!! how is not that a huge real benefit!